The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same
by Mech Anon
Summary: There were ten people in Gryffindor our year, twelve in Ginny's, 20 in '93-'95, ten again in '96 and five in '97. Numbers recovered up to 20 over the next four years and held steady until 2007, then there were four, four again in '08 and '09. We aren't a viable community any more.
1. 1

**Step 1 - Wait for Hermione to finish her research then steal it**

It's Hermione's research but ruthless as she is, she won't apply it for her own happiness and she hasn't yet accepted that we aren't a viable community any more.

There were ten people in Gryffindor our year - forty in our entire year, twelve in Ginny's, twenty in '93-'95, ten again in '96 and five in '97. Numbers recovered up to twenty over the next four years and held steady until 2007, then there were four. Four again - just sixteen students in the entire year - in '08 and '09. A brief recovery in '10 of twelve in Gryffindor - 48 overall - and then they steadily decline to six. I've seen the book, for the next ten years we will send offer letters to forty students a year, of those fifteen to twenty will reject the offer, Hogwarts has never recovered it's reputation as a safe place to send your children. Those educated at schools outside the UK will never return, many of those home educated will simultaneously study at muggle school and break their wands at the end of fifth year. There is nothing for them here. We let the status quo return, the same people who fought for Voldemort walk through the halls of the Ministry, still Ministers and advisors. A werewolf still can't get work anywhere in the Wizarding World and the hiring practises require purebloods to be considered before an equally qualified half-blood so don't bother applying if you're muggleborn.

It's not like the Wizarding Europe is some utopia of freedom and equality. Eastern Europe have had a succession of dark lords and dictators who decimated their populations and all the wars and border issues beyond. Durmstrang still doesn't take muggleborns or half-bloods who can't prove their lineage, so it's local schools for most of them which realistically is weekend magic school and muggle school during the week. Beauxbatons has the healthiest student population of the big three and they opened their doors to muggleborns from anywhere on the continent at 7 and magically-raised children worldwide at 11. Even they're struggling, for ten years our worst bigots have got their jollies in Europe where they aren't recognised and been respectable members of society here.

I can't go back further than my conception, so I can't stop him from making Horcruxes or targeting Harry and I can't do anything about Europe's local issues but I can stop our people from exporting their trouble. Hermione's been researching this for years, she was never happy that Harry had to die. I've a plan or the bare bones of one.

* * *

 **Step 2 - Get set up in 1979**

The population of the Wizarding UK had already been thinned considerably by May Day 1979 and it hadn't recovered from Grindelwald before Voldemort probably because no-one ever bothered to deal with Grindelwald's supporters. Luckily for me that means there is a nice cottage in the middle of Kent that has no-one to claim it and no-one who remembers it exists. In 1979, it still has a complete roof and all it's walls unlike when Hermione and I found in the aftermath of Harry's wedding. I love this house but we always missed Harry's presence. The empty room between our rooms, the empty seat between our armchairs, a table made for three with only two eat at it.

I take the name Frank Bryce, it seems appropriate to have someone who Voldemort killed without thought be the person to defeat him. It's easy to fake O Levels for myself and not impossible to set up a reputation as a slightly eccentric hedge wizard who prefers muggles to wizards. Rumours spread that I make amazing carved wooden furniture but that's all my magic is good for. I flirt liberally with all the women my age in the local village but never seriously.

The house and the job come together too fast. There's four months before Hermione is born when I arrive and 29 before Harry's parents will die. I don't want to let that happen but I need to destroy the Horcruxes and to do that I need _him_ disembodied.

When letting my best friend's parents die gets to me, I track down minor death eaters. None of the ones who matter to You-Know-Who or the ones who don't act outside his orders. The ones who enjoy killing and hurting other people, the ones who even at the height of the First War are still sneaking off to Europe to kill outside of his purview. The ministry doesn't care what happens outside the UK, Voldemort calls them failures, and the countries they die in are happy to dispose of the bodies of a few dead Brits for a significantly reduced murder rate. The only person who cares is Dumbledore, trying to give every pureblood their millionth chance to not be a murdering bigot.

* * *

 **Step 3 - The Locket**

There are two horcruxes I can get before Halloween. One I have to get before Halloween. According Kreacher, Regulus lent him to Voldemort on the 21st June 1979, he was returned on the 22nd June and Regulus took the locket on the 25th June. So on the 23rd June I traveled to the cave with an unfortunate pig.

I travelled during the day because I'm not fan of breaking my neck on slippery rocks and not trying to collect horcruxes when a known enemy of the maker. Even on a bright sunny day the cave and it's entrance are cold, wet and slippery. I use the boat to transport myself and the pig to the island with it's bowl of poison. Conjure a trough into which I pour the first goblet of the potion and secure the pig so it cannot reach the water. An unpleasant thirst curse convinces the pig to drink and inability to get anything else makes it continue until the bowl is empty.

I pick up the locket in gloved hands and deposit it into a bag which I place inside a box and then into my backpack. A poor fake goes back into the bowl. Regulus might have changed his mind but his life is not worth all those who will die if You-Know-Who finds out.

A charm bludgeons the pig sharply across the head without breaking the skin and I heft it's dead weight into the boat. From the outside of the cave I apparate straight back to my cottage where I butcher it discarding only the intestines and stomach that are filled with the potion.

* * *

 **Step 4 - Tell Hermione's parents**

Hermione's parents never came back. We went to Australia as soon as we could, once things were beginning to settle down. They were easy to find, two British expats dentists with strange names. She hadn't done much, taken their memories of her and the Wizarding World and applied a compulsion to leave the UK. They asked her to take back the memories when she returned them and the compulsion had long since worn off. They were in the process of adopting a set of muggle siblings and all they wanted from her was to make sure none of the kids were magical and leave.

She told me that they'd been scared of her for as long as she remembered, taking their memories showed her why. She'd made her toys dance since 6 months, levitated the books she wanted at 9 months and fixed broken vase at a year leaving deep unexplained cuts on herself. I thought if they knew why she was the way she was that they wouldn't be so scared and that at a year they knew something was wrong. To me, 1st September 1980 was the best time to tell them.

The Grangers live in a leafy Kent suburb. At 10am on days she doesn't work Hermione's mother takes her to the park three streets away and pretends the other children don't bully her child and that her child's toys don't move of their own accord. The park is neutral territory somewhere her mother likes. Today I wait at the park until half ten and there is still no sign of either of them so I go to the house. From the driveway the house doesn't look much different to the one we stood outside in '99 while she cried.

It's quiet, still and silent and there is a buzzing in the background I recognise from attending attacks after the Second War. Training kicks in. I silently cast a number of spells which reveal one living being in the house and the residue of a number of dark spells. The front door is locked with a simple colloportus but there is a path of destruction from the door to the living room where the bodies of Hermione's parents lie. They're dead; I already knew that so I walk past them up the stairs to where there is a life sign. She's hiding in her parents wardrobe which is charred. Accidental magic has sealed her in tightly. It takes me an hour to undo the spells and she whimpers through the entire experience.

When I finally see her, she's pale and tear stained but unharmed. I want to wrap my arms around her and cry with relief. I don't know why this changed there was never an attack on her family in the original timeline. She's scooted as far back from me as possible.

"Merlin's saggy left bollock!" I swear, "Don't repeat that." I tell her. I cast a sleeping spell perfected on Harry and Ginny's children and gather her up. With a pop we are on the road to the Burrow, mum and dad will be off with Charlie, Percy and the twins dropping Bill off for his first year at Hogwarts, so I walk up to their front door. It's noon, they'll back in the next ten minutes. I lay her down on the doorstep and cast a spell to corral her to a small area around the front door. Even though it's a warm September day I wrap her in a conjured blanket and cast a water repelling charm on it just in case. I tuck a stuffed cat resembling Crookshanks in next to her and I'm gone.

* * *

 **Step 5 - The Diadium**

The next easiest horcrux to collect is the diadium. All OWL and NEWT exams are sat at Hogwarts so I apply for the May sitting of three OWLs necessary for enchanting objects and NEWTs in the same subjects. Due to my age and supposed home education I'm allowed to sit both. If I'm to make a life here in Britain after I deal with Voldemort they will be necessary so I aim to succeed.

The adoption of a Weasley daughter, Elaine, is announced in the Prophet the same day as my first exams. I have three today, OWL Astronomy in the morning, NEWT Charms in the afternoon, and OWL Ancient Runes in the evening. Between these exams I'm supposed to stay out of the way of students. It's the only day my exams are close enough to justify staying in the castle.

Luckily, the seventh floor corridor is empty and Hogwarts is without an onerous resident trouble makers being between the Marauders and the twins. I never saw the Room of Hidden Things before it was damaged with Fiend Fire. It's a pack rat's heaven, the part of me used to rummaging through second hand stores for anything decent at a bargain is salivating but I have ten minutes before I am suspicious not lost so I locate the diadium on the damaged bust of a severe looking witch and repeat the bagging and boxing technique.

I buzz with nerves through Ancient Runes and only calm down when the horcrux is safely locked in the safe with the locket. Two down, four to go and none of the rest can be tackelled until after the Halloween 1981. On the table from my open Daily Prophet Hermione smiles up from dad's lap and I lie in mum's arms.

* * *

 **Step 6 - Destroy Some Dark Lord Soul**

I was going to do this all at once but I'm not comfortable with the idea of storing three parts of You-Know-Who in my living room. The safe is good but I'm going to collect the ring tomorrow and Harry soon after. With all the fireworks to celebrate You-Know-Who's defeat the 1st November is a great time to play with Fiend Fire without the Ministry noticing.

There is a clearing behind the cottage that I take the Horcruxes to, it's bare rock and dirt so there is nothing to feed the flames but the relics of the Founders. The flames from their characteristic animals devour them, melting them down to slag. In my mind I hear Hermione mourning the loss but she would only take the more dangerous and complex option to save a life. The screams of the dying Dark Lord echo through the night over the flames.

I let the flames burn for two hours after the last scream. When I leave the clearing molten metal and rock mix and the nearest trees are blackened with soot.

* * *

 **Step 7 - The Ring**

Finding the Gaunt Shack is surprisingly easy and so is the walking through the anti-muggle wards. In a change of plans, after my success with Fiend Fire at home, I take advantage of thick fog and the distance from the village and cast Fiend Fire on the shack as a whole rather than try to work through You-Know-Who's defenses. From a safe distance I watch as the fire breaks through the protection charms and consumes everything in the area. Despite the November chill I don't need warming charms until the fire has extinguished. Then I rummage through the slag and debris until I find the stone alone. The ring is a melted lump on the ground that I leave but the stone is Harry's.

* * *

 **Step 8 - Peter Pettigrew**

I wake swearing the day after I destroy the ring. I forgot about Peter and Sirius. The Prophet has reported Sirius arrest this morning but I don't remember when exactly Percy found the rat. I wasn't old when it happened. I'm not about to leave You-Know-Who resurrectable so that isn't an issue but leaving an innocent man in Azkaban and Pettigrew with free access to Hogwarts and my family feels wrong.

I wander in to the village thinking, there is a woman I've been flirting with more often than any other, Roseanna, she reminds me of Lavender before the war. Her daughter is magical but Roseanna hasn't responded to any of careful my enquiries other than to admit sometimes strange things happen around Rachel. Rachel is playing with a large eared kitten, she squeals when she sees me and runs over clutching the cat. We chat about the pretty kitty and my mind whirls. I don't need to know when if I can stop the rat from being accepted into our home and I'm sure mum wouldn't mind a free kneazel.

I wrangle a dinner date at the pub with Roseanna and make my way to the Magical Menagerie. There is a tabby kneazel with squashed face, and two kittens with equally squashed faces who rubs up against me when I explain who they are for. She walks from the bounds of the Burrow with her stumbling kits and beds down on the kitchen window.

* * *

 **Step 9 - Harry**

I rushed getting the ring, barely allowing two weeks to pass after You-Know-Who's defeat. There are people who can connect the Gaunt's to You-Know-Who and I didn't know that he had left the UK yet but I didn't want to leave Harry with the Dursley's longer than necessary. It's not like it was hard to kidnap the kid. Apparate to Little Whinging, invisibility charm on myself and wait for his Aunt Petunia to leave with Dudley but without Harry. Unlock the front door and the cupboard under the stairs, cast a sleeping spell on the already sleeping toddler and carry him out the house. Swallow down my rage and apparate back home.

Getting the horcrux out of Harry is more difficult and not completely guaranteed. Hermione's research after the war found the method pretty quickly but all of the accounts made it clear this was risky. Better than leaving someone with a horcrux feeding off them but they were not guaranteed to survive. That the horcrux would not survive was guaranteed though and I could kill my best mate for the lives of thousands.

I cleaned out the outbuilding I use for carpentry and brought one of the goats in before I went to collect Harry. It's happily munching on the hay I left still tied to the centre pole. There is a nest of clean sheets to lay Harry on, two clean silver knives and the hardest part of all this a purification potion that had to be brewed at the full moon and contain 13 unicorn hairs freely given. Not required for the ritual, but Hermione had always been very clear on the importance of sterile protocol when doing any blood ritual, are two pairs of latex gloves and a sterile field.

First pair of gloves on. The ritual is surprisingly simple when you get to it. You cut the physical mark of the horcrux from the host you are trying to save with the first knife. Harry sleeps through it under my spell without twitching and I soon have a rectangular patch of skin lying on the sterile field. Blood pours from the wound on his forehead, making his hair shine a glossy red and staining the blankets he's lying on but I can't do anything to stop the blood as that would also bind the horcrux inside. Then you cut a similar sized strip of flesh from the new sacrificial host with the second knife and apply the flesh from original host to the sacrificial host and meld it with the sacrificial host's flesh with a specialised spell I've never seen before but wasn't hard to master. Change gloves. Pour the purification potion over Harry's bleeding forehead and watch black mist emerge from it and travel across to the goat. The goat screams in pain as the black mist enters it. Once the mist is fully out of Harry, I cast episkey and watch the rectangular wound heal to a messy irregular shape lightly fairer than the surrounding skin. A slashing curse slits the goat's throat and ends its life.

I cast a spell to detect dark magic on Harry which comes back comfortingly clear and follow it up with a gentle cleaning spell. Move him from the bloody sheets across to my living room and settle him on the sofa wrapped in cozy blankets.

The goat is hung for butchering in another outhouse and I clean the blood away from my workshop. I leave Harry in the entrance to St Mungo's still peacefully sleeping, the Resurrection stone slipped into his blankets.

* * *

 **Step 10 - The Cup**

I take advantage of the furor of finding their saviour abandoned to get hold of another horcrux. The final two are the hardest to obtain and the most risky to me. I have a vault in Gringotts and have made a point to visit it regularly and take a long time to finish up.

This time though I cast imperius on my driver and order him to take me to Bellatrix Lestrange's vault first. I don't bother entering and collecting the cup around the various protections instead I use Fiend Fire and have the goblin close and lock the door on the screaming horcrux when everything is burning brightly before taking me to my own vault.

A memory charm leaves the goblin believing he took me straight to my vault and that I was very slow counting my gold. As expected, Gringotts report no damage to the bank other than the Lestrange vault and that nothing was stollen, instead Lestrange is blamed for placing volatile curses in her vault and the goblins claim the remaining contents to cover the costs of repairs.

* * *

 **Step 11 - The Diary**

The last horcrux is the most complicated. I've been setting this up since I arrived but still takes till new year to get an invitation to consult with Mrs Malfoy on furniture for their son's bedroom.

I arrive an hour early for the appointment and kill Narcissa first with a bubble headed charm filled with smoke. She is then layed out on the front lawn, her child protected beneath her, under a sleeping charm that should wear off just as I am due to arrive.

The man of house is in his office with his collection of dark objects hidden under the floor. I cast my first and hopefully last killing curse as I enter the room. Open the vault below and make sure the diary is there then bring up a random selection of objects and cast Fiend Fire on them. I leave as the fire spreads from the desk to the room around throwing the wand I used to kill the Malfoys and curse the goblin into the fire.

I stand at the entrance watching the place burn until the child starts to scream. Then I apparate to the Ministry and report what I found. Straight back to collect the child, the aurors arrive to me rocking Draco as his mother lies dead on the ground.

I'm questioned but not seriously and return home in time for my dinner plans with Roseanna. Dinner is as successful as always and we agree to dinner with Rachel next week, and maybe I'll stay the night.

Over the course of the next few months, the papers are filled with arguments about where Harry and Draco should be placed. St Mungos and Magical Law Enforcement placed them with Andromeda and Ted Tonks as their nearest living relatives who weren't batshit insane in the immediate aftermath. A fact that Dumbledore and many of Lucius Malfoy's associates violently protested but with the children all ready placed and safe, a muggle household that hadn't noticed the Saviour was missing unsuitable despite Dumbledore's promises that it was necessary and none of those wanting Draco not also facing charges the press coverage slowly faded with no movement of the children.

I stay the night at Roseanna's and then she stays at mine. Bringing Rachel over to sleep in what was Hermione's room in the original timeline but hasn't been used by anyone other than a little girl who loves pink and screams with laughter when I tickle her since I arrived in the this timeline. She discovers me using magic the second time she stays and I explain what we are to Roseanna who is very relieved to know why her child could be so strange at times.

The death of Lucius was as expected very effective in reducing the number of attacks, intimidation of people standing against blood purists and a remarkable drop in muggle baiting incidents. I remember who Rachel was in the original timeline three years after Lucius died, a particularly gruesome murder of a muggleborn through the use of a cursed item that haunted my father. I didn't I let her out of my sight for three days after I remembered, when her letter arrives and Professor McGonagall with it I fight for Beauxbatons or home tutoring but she goes against my protestations and I suspect our younger children will too.

No matter how close I press my ear to the grapevine, by the Summer of 1991 there has been no news of Voldemort and little from his supporters for the last ten years even as Dumbledore begins to leak that the Philosopher's Stone will be at Hogwarts this year. I wait all summer and most of autumn but there is no report of any break in at Gringotts although I am disturbed to hear from Rachel that the Third Floor is off limits for the same reason as last time. She spends more time gushing over her ongoing crush on Percy Weasley which fills me with anxiety and makes her mother pleased that she has better taste than the Weasleys in her year.


	2. The Journey from Platform Nine and Three

The door of the compartment slid open revealing a freckly red headed boy boy lugging a battered trunk and a wicker basket. "Anyone sitting there?" He asked pointing at the spare seat opposite the two boys already there. "Everywhere else is full."

The black haired boy shook his head. The boy leavered his trunk up on to the rack and then gingerly opened the wicker basket before sitting down next to it. "I'm Ron, Ron Weasley."

The blonde boy spoke up first, "Draco Malfoy and this is Harry Potter. Did you know you have dirt on your nose?"

Ron flushed red and scrubbed at his nose with the back of his hand. "Are you really?" He asked Harry, "Do you have the scar?"

"The amazing wandering scar?" Harry asked, "I don't fancy stripping to prove I don't"

A large ginger cat emerged from the wicker basket and stalked across into Harry's lap and then into Draco's. "Tiger." Ron moaned as the cat settled down purring on Draco's lap. "Sorry about him. " He picked the cat up off Draco and sat back down in his seat holding the cat firmly.

"It's fine." Draco replied. "I like cats."

"He was my brother Percy's but mum and dad got him an owl for making prefect."

"How many siblings do you have?" Draco asked.

"Seven." Ron said, "Bill and Charlie have both graduated and Ginny starts next year. Percy's in fifth year, the twins are in third, and Ellie is in second year. You guys?"

"No, siblings for either of us. We have a cousin Dora who graduated last year." Harry said.

"Which house are you hoping for?" Ron asked when the silence after the last question hung on just a bit to long. "All of my siblings are in Gryffindor, but provided it's not Slytherin I'll be happy."

"There's nothing wrong with Slytherin." Draco said, "Our Aunt Andy was a Slytherin and so were my parents but Uncle Ted and Dora were Hufflepuffs."

"You've not met the twins." Ron said. "If I was in Slytherin I'd never have a free moment from being pranked."

The door to the compartment slid open to reveal a girl with bushy red hair and just as many freckles as Ron and plump shy looking brown haired boy. "Mum gave you Percy's sandwich." She said holding out a foil wrapped parcel with Ronnie written on it.

Ron dug through his ancient looking satchel and pulled out a similar parcel with Percy on it and handed it over taking his own parcel and checking the contents. "Egg mayonnaise, what does Percy have?"

"Corned beef." She said. "Is there space for one more in here?" The three boys nodded and she gently pushed the brown haired boy in. "Tiger make sure that toad doesn't escape again." She said rubbing the cat behind it's ears. "Everything okay, Ron?"

"Fine, Ellie." She nodded once and spun on her heel leaving.

"She's…" The brown haired boy trailed off.

"Scary but brilliant?"" Ron asked, the boy nodded. "Yeah she is. I'm Ron Weasley, Ellie's younger brother. These are Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy."

"Neville Longbottom, she found my toad, Trevor, after he escaped. Rescued him from two of your brothers."

"So what do you reckon are the Canon's chances this season?" Ron asked rubbing the back of his neck and flushing slightly.

The rest of the journey passed in relative peace, Neville spoke barely but between the other three they managed to argue about quidditch for most of the journey and barely touch on iffy subjects like whose parents had tried to kill whose parents during the war. They filled a boat between them with Tiger riding along on Ron's shoulder and only moving once to prevent Trevor escaping his terrarium.

In the anti-chamber to the main hall were gathered sixty-four nervous looking eleven year olds who when called by Professor McGonagall trapised out to find out that unlike the rumours of troll fighting or magical tests they would instead just have to put a hat on their heads.

Of the people they knew Neville was first. He took an uncomfortably long time before the hat placed him in Gryffindor and he ran off still wearing the hat. Draco was next, the hat barely touched his head before beginning to call out a house then stopping abruptly. He seemed to be arguing with the hat before shrugging, "Slytherin" the hat called and he stood up waving at Harry as he joined the green clad table. Harry, unlike his cousin was very quick to sort. The hat didn't fully touch his head before it was calling out Gryffindor and he was waving at his cousin from the other side of the room as the Gryffindor's celebrated. Ron was sorted faster than either Draco or Neville but not as quickly as Harry joining his siblings in Gryffindor.


End file.
